“It is Mr. Brando’s Air Force hero who falls in love with a beautiful Japanese actress in this beautiful, sentimental tale, that gives eccentricity and excitement to a richly colorful film…a lively and tense dramatic show.”
– Bosley Crowther, The New York Times
“This operatic picture from James A. Michener’s novel has worn remarkably well…Brando, more matinee idol than Method actor, and none the worse for that, is contained and always watchable; but Red Buttons, in his first major role…gives perhaps the more heartfelt performance.”
– Time Out London

A romantic drama openly dealing with racism and prejudice, Sayonara (1957) stars Marlon Brando as an Air Force major who falls in love with a Japanese actress (Miiko Taka) while stationed near Kobe, Japan during the Korean War. Like his crew chief, Joe (Red Buttons) – just married to a Japanese woman (Miyoshi Umeki) – the Major suddenly finds himself having to contend with a cruel military policy and an all-but-general bias against miscegenation. Sensitively directed by Joshua Logan, and featuring a superlative Franz Waxman score and a celebrated title song by Irving Berlin.